The Dodos preview new album with "Black Night"

I was first introduced to San Francisco rock duo The Dodos about a year ago and it was love at first listen. Now with the duo gearing up for the release of their new album No Color (which will add Neko Case to the lineup if only for a couple songs). "Black Night" is the first taste of the new album and surprising one of the new tracks that doesn't feature Case. Instead you're treated to The Dodos' characteristic rhythm-based rock, Logan Kroeber's drum work inventive enough to both keep beat and add variety and Meric Long's vocals seizing hold of the expansive freedom afforded by the band's small lineup. They even fit in an instrumental jam. Enjoy "Black Night":


You can pre-order No Color (out March 15th) at The Dodos website here.

tUnE-yArDs releases new single off new album

Not too long ago tUnE-yArDs announce the upcoming release of their sophomore album, and now you can hear the album's first single "Bizness". For those who saw her in concert last year, the song will certainly be familiar to you. It's your first foray into Garbus' more polished studio album.
tUnE-yArDs - Bizzness by ListenBeforeYouBuy

"Bizness" or at least the album version of it seems to lack something. Despite Garbus' big, brassy voice, there's always been a sort of natural intimacy achieved with her and her looping pedal and a sort of amazement that all the sounds produced came from her whereas this version of "Bizness", featuring tenor saxophone and computery blips filling during her normal appeggiated vocal riffs. I'll hold off judgment until w h o k i l l's actual release but the new studio sound doesn't adequately capture Garbus' skills or charm.

New Porngraphers stack new video for "Moves"

In their video for "Moves", The New Pornographers enlist a star-studded cast to play themselves. The video takes the form of a movie preview, proceeded by a buddy comedy preview called Expectant Dads where Paul Rudd and Bill Hader who seven months pregnant decide to seek out their baby daddies, that glamorizes the band's rise in the aptly named The Rise and Rise of The New Pornographers. In the video, the band makes fun of itself as "Carl Newman" (played by Superchunk's Jon Wurster) puts up a band needed sign asking for: a female singer (Julie Klausner as Neko Case), a guitarist (Kevin Coorigan as Dan Bejar), a bassist (Horatio Sanz as John Collins), keyboardist (Wyatt Cenac as Blaine Thurier), another guitarist, and another female singer? (Ted Leo as Kathryn Calder). The band meets with success in Canada, enters America to some Anti-Canadian hostility, get rich and famous, do some hard drugs, and makes their comeback with "Moves Pt. 2". The video/movie preview's got romance, action, and most importantly the New Pornographer's "Moves" accompanying it.

Other cameos include comedian Todd Barry as the band's merch guy, Donald Glover, John Oliver, and John Hodgman (the PC guy) as their label rep, in addition to nearly countless others. Enjoy New Pornographer's "Moves":

Cake - Showroom of Compassion (2011)

I'm going to be honest: The real reason I anticipated Showroom of Compassion was because of Cake claiming to be doing so using a solar powered studio and I wanted to see if it could be done. Not because of the 7 year period between album releases. My cursory knowledge of Cake comes from the use of their songs for TV show theme songs (instrumental versions of "Italian Leather Sofa" on Mission Hill and "Short Skirt/Long Jacket" on Chuck) and a few unfocused album listens. And yet, despite the fact that I couldn't really be a called a Cake fan, I was excited once I heard the album got its release date.

Showroom isn't a radical departure from anything you'd expect from Cake, and yet it adds enough new elements to keep itself from seeming stale and overdone. The use of brass is still prevalent though a bit more subtle in its usage. It mostly moves along at a groovy toe-tapping pace with the occasionally rhythmic curve ball thrown in like "Teenage Pregnancy" with its film score grandeur.

At a time where artists churn songs out that vary anywhere from 7-30 minutes, Showroom's rather short track times (never exceeding 5 minutes) is actually pretty refreshing: Long enough for you to enjoy it thoroughly, but short enough that it doesn't get old. One of the worst things that can happen when you wait a very long time for an album is that it simply doesn't deliver. I can't speak of the expectations of the die-hard Cake fans but with Showroom of Compassion, no part of it seems at all phoned in. Sure there's a surprising change of genre/sound with sauntering boom-chuck laden "Bound Away". And yet it keeps the album from sounding too similar (in addition to the piano parts in "The Winter" and strings in "Italian Guy"). I'm not sure how it stacks up against Cake's past albums, but to this listener the album is an excitingly good listen worthy of many repeat listens.

Rural Alberta Advantage premiere new video and announce tour dates

Canadian Indie Rock Trio The Rural Alberta Advantage are just about to release their sophomore album Departing (out March 1st). To ease the wait, The trio premiered their new video for first single "Stamp" on The Wedge. Their video is surprisingly very meta featuring a "fan" commenting on the newness of the song and the "show" itself while a girl pines for the two male band members. Hilariously the fan only becomes interested in the girl when he realizes she knows the lyrics to the new song that he doesn't while the girl is solely interested in which band member she likes more. Splice in scenes of the band playing and you've got the video for "Stamp". Enjoy!:

The Rural Alberta Advantage - Stamp from Saddle Creek on Vimeo.

3/9 Middle East Cafe - Cambridge, Massachusetts
3/10 The Bowery Ballroom - New York, New York
3/11 First Unitarian Church - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
3/12 The Knitting Factory - Brooklyn, New York
3/13 Rock 'N Roll Hotel - Washington, D.C.
3/14 Local 506 - Chapel Hill, North Carolina
3/15 The Earl - Atlanta, Georgia
3/17-3/20 Austin, Texas SXSW
3/20 The Loft - Dallas, Texas
3/22 The Maintenance Shop @ Iowa State University - Ames, Iowa
3/23 Mad Planet - Milwaukee, Wisconsin
3/24 High Noon Saloon - Madison, Wisconsin
3/25 First Avenue - Minneapolis, Minnesota
3/26 Lincoln Hall - Chicago, Illinois
3/27 Phog Lounge - Windsor, Ontario, Canada
3/31 Pyramid Cabaret - Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
4/1 Amigos Cantina - Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
4/2 The Starlite Room - Edmonton, Alberta,Canada
4/5 Republik - Calgary, Alberta, Canada
4/6 The Royal on Baker - Nelson, British Columbia, Canada
4/7 Habitat - Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada
4/8 Venue Nightclub - Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
4/9 Doug Fir Lounge - Portland, Oregon
4/10 The Tractor Tavern - Seattle, Washington
4/12 The Bottom of the Hill - San Francisco, California
4/13 The Bottom of the Hill - San Francisco, California
4/15 Indio, California Coachella
4/19 The State Room - Salt Lake City, Utah
4/20 Hi-Dive - Denver, Colorado
4/21 Slowdown - Omaha, Nebraska
4/22 Firebird - St. Louis, Missouri
4/23 Radio Radio - Indianapolis, Indiana
4/24 Beachland Ballroom - Cleveland Ohio


You can also pre-order the new album at their label website here.

53rd Grammy Awards Go Indie...kinda

As the Grammys approach, I realize that this is the only year I've actually been interested in them. Normally the Grammy Awards tend to be a pretty predictable affair filled with nominations for the most popular and mostly similar sounding music. But this year with the nomination of The Arcade Fire's The Suburbs for Album of the Year, I sensed change in the air. And when I checked out other Grammy Nominees I was pretty surprised to see Ray LaMontagne nominated for multiple categories (like Song of the Year for "Beg Steal or Borrow"), Mumford & Sons up for Best New Artist, Sarah Bareilles up for Best Female Vocal Performance (though the fact that she's up against Norah Jones, Beyonce, and Lady Gaga makes her chances of winning plummet immensely), in addition to all sorts of surprising Grammy nods.

Taking a look at the nominees you'll notice this: All of a sudden, The Grammy's are becoming more Indie friendly. What does this mean? Well I'm not sure exactly. The fact that several big name Indie artists are put up against some multiple Grammy award-winning and award-nominated group is both hopefully and not at the same time. While you hope the "underdogs" wins, there's always going to be some doubt as to whether they're actually going to or if they do, why they actually won. Cynicism aside though, you definitely have to admit that the 53rd Grammy Awards are definitely going to be interesting to watch.

Sleigh Bells release video for "Rill Rill"

Brooklyn noise pop duo Sleigh Bells recently released their latest video for "Rill Rill" and similarly to the video for "Infinity Guitars" is full of awesomeness. Despite "Rill Rill" basically being a slow jam, the duo still find a way to stuff some testosterone-fueled epicness. In the video, Alexis Krauss asserts her badassery by throwing partner Derek Miller, who's suffering from some head trauma, and his guitar out of her awesome car. Cut to scenes of Krauss in a classroom, and a bleeding telephone, and you've got a surprisingly interesting video. Enjoy the video for Sleigh Bell's "Rill Rill":